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Do the hot coals left over from a wood stove put in a metal bucket and left in my greenhouse give off CO2 or Carbon Monoxide or both? I do this to keep the temp above freezing - the greenhouse is not completely air-tight - due to my inept construction it cannot be :) - so there is some fresh air getting in. Will doing this kill my plants? I have done research but still am unclear.

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim. Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain. This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by a Nasa-affiliated scientist and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make...

WASHINGTON—Ushering in the largest decrease in auto fuel consumption since the 1970s, President Barack Obama and automobile manufacturers Friday announced a deal that will save drivers money at the pump and dramatically cut heat-trapping gases coming from tailpipes. The agreement pledges to double overall fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, bringing major under-the-hood changes for the nation's automobiles starting in model year 2017. Cars and trucks on the road today average 27 miles per gallon. "This agreement on fuel standards represents the single most important step we have taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on...

Chris Christie says global warming is real. It’s just the very man-made government programs to correct its effects that are bloated and flawed. The Republican New Jersey governor launched into an explanation Thursday for why he’s bowing out of a landmark regional cap-and-trade program for power plants, according to Politico, but he first strapped on his layman scientist’s cap to give a brief overview of what’s widely considered accepted climate science. His decision to leave the program, known as the RGGI, drew quick praise from conservative groups, including the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, that have long lobbied him to...

The Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that it would throw out a global warming lawsuit brought by California and five other states that seek limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in the South and Midwest. Encouraged by the solicitor general, the justices said regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the Environmental Protection Agency. The issue debated before the high court Tuesday was not whether greenhouse gases are causing global climate change, but who should regulate them. The decision involves politics, economics and science, the lawyers said. "It's a question of tradeoffs," said Peter Keisler, representing the power producers....

This Wednesday, the Senate is likely to vote on a measure from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases as pollutants. The vote will be among the most consequential of this decade...

Even while gas prices continue to go up and recent turmoil in Libya and the Middle East further threaten America's energy independence, the Obama Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) keeps pursuing a policy agenda that will only make matters worse. Specifically, the EPA is trying to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases and essentially enact a backdoor cap and trade scheme. Congress never intended the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases and doing so threatens to trigger new energy taxes, greatly slow America's still-recovering economy, and send more jobs overseas to China, India, and other countries....

House GOP Readies Ban on EPA Greenhouse Gas RegulationsPublished February 02, 2011 Associated Press WASHINGTON – In a sharp challenge to the Obama administration, House Republicans intend to unveil legislation Wednesday to ban the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act and expect to advance the bill quickly, officials disclosed Tuesday night. The officials said the bill would nullify all of the steps the EPA has taken to date on the issue, including a threshold finding that greenhouse gases constitute a danger to the public health and welfare. In addition, it seeks to strip the...

One of the reasons I constantly ask those who believe in AGW what the “perfect temperature” for the world is and how we can achieve it is I understand that the only constant in the earth’s climate is change. The world’s climate has always been changing in various cycles since its formation. History shows us that we’ve had periods of more CO2 than now, warmer periods than now and neither of the events can be explained away by blaming man. How we got into this scared mode of screaming about gloom and doom if we don’t do something is both...

Big business is bracing for a series of Environmental Protection Agency regulations set to begin in January. The problem is, it doesn't really know what those regulations are going to be. Neither does the EPA, which has essentially punted that responsibility down to the states. Starting Jan. 2, owners of factories, utilities and the like must meet higher standards when they apply for EPA emissions permits. In green jargon, they will have to install the "best available control technology" to limit greenhouse gases before they can operate. Tough And Vague But the EPA has no standard for determining what is...

Bono in Tokyo in 2008: My prayer is that we become better in looking after our planet.And the Keen for Green group applauds: If your (sic) looking for an environmental role model, Irish rockstar, Bono (born Paul David Hewson, May 10, 1960), of the band U2 is a good place to start. Bono ... participated in a tree planting ceremony in Tokyo Bay, Japan, in 2008, where efforts are being taken to turn a landfill into an 88 hectare forest. Bono has also been active in the Greenpeace community since 1993 when his entire band participated in a protest against...

Climate scientist Roger Pielke, Sr has noted that land surface temperature records (which comprise the vast majority of temperature records prior to the satellite era (1979-)) are unreliable due to land use changes and urban heat island effects, and that we should therefore look to ocean heat content changes as the most reliable metric for assessing global heating and cooling. The oceans cover 71% of the global surface area and hold at least 1000 times more heat than the atmosphere. Many have claimed that the 'missing heat' from 'anthropogenic global warming' has gone into the oceans, even though the heat...

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desperately seeks a way to force a cap-and-trade energy bill through the Senate, folks in 10 northeastern states are getting a bitter taste of what such a program really means. In the case of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that includes New Jersey New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware and Maryland, greed and secrecy appear to be the most dominant considerations. RGGI describes itself on its web site as “the first mandatory, market-based effort in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states...

Eighteen months ago, Barack Obama took office pledging to deal with a “planet in peril.” His party held big majorities in Congress, and the House answered by passing a tough cap-and-trade bill. A massive climate conference in Copenhagen, with Obama at the center of the action, focused the world on the need to address global warming. Then came the nation’s worst-ever environmental disaster, an oil spill in the Gulf that put momentum behind environmentalists and scarred the image of big, polluting industries.

Up to 1,000 jobs at Bucyrus International Inc. and its suppliers could be in jeopardy as the result of a decision by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, funded by Congress, to deny several hundred million dollars in loan guarantees to a coal-fired power plant and mine in India. About 300 of those jobs are at the Bucyrus plant in South Milwaukee, where the company has 1,410 employees and its headquarters. The remaining jobs are spread across 13 states, including Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana. On Thursday, the Export-Import Bank denied financing for Reliance Power Ltd., an Indian power plant company, effectively wiping...

SÃO PAULO – In a heroic case of finding a silver lining in the bleakest of all situations, the European Union climate commissioner has concluded that the global economic crisis and recession actually provided a lucky break for everyone. Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says that the slowdown in economic activity will make it easier for the EU to achieve its 2020 goal of ensuring that greenhouse-gas emissions are 20% below their 1990 level. In fact, Hedegaard believes that cutting emissions has become so easy that European leaders should be more ambitious and unilaterally aim for a 30% reduction below the 1990...

The first trials of controversial sunshielding technology are being planned after the United Nations failed to secure agreement on cutting greenhouse gases. Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire, is funding research into machines to suck up ten tonnes of seawater every second and spray it upwards. This would seed vast banks of white clouds to reflect the Sun’s rays away from Earth.The British and American scientists involved do not intend to wait for international rules on technology that deliberately alters the climate. They believe that the weak outcome of December’s climate summit in Copenhagen means that emissions will continue to rise...

Rep. Tom McMillin, has introduced a resolution that would withdraw Michigan from the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. Similar resolutions will be introduced by legislators in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Gov. Jennifer Granholm joined the governors of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa and Kansas in signing the accord, which calls for a 20 percent reduction of CO2 emissions below 2005 levels by 2020 and would require extensive economic pain with little to no environmental gain. Significant CO2 emission reductions will lead to higher energy costs for both consumers and Michigan businesses, resulting in a loss of more jobs (particularly acute...

California voters will likely be asked in the November general election if the state's greenhouse gas law should be put on hold for rosier economic times.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - At least 15 U.S. states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to stop it from issuing rules controlling greenhouse gas emissions until it reexamines whether the pollution harms human health.

Regulation: The New York Times says the EPA should use its authority to regulate our very breath if a Democratic Congress isn't "goaded" into action. Whatever happened to government of the people? It's been a pattern of this administration that if the American people are adamantly opposed to it, ram it through anyway. So it's been with the health care overhaul, offshore drilling restrictions and now the Environmental Protection Agency threatening to become the uber-regulator of the air we breathe. The New York Times says in a Saturday editorial regarding that last item that if Congress fails to enact cap-and-trade...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ought to reconsider its finding that greenhouse gas emissions pose a public health danger, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Monday.

One gram of Carbon Dioxide heated at the surface by incident sunlight carries (2 * 539 = 1078) 1078 times less energy into the atmosphere than one gram of water. Carbon dioxide represents 0.0387 % of the atmosphere. Water in the lower atmosphere represents 1% to 4% or 25 to 100 times the amount of carbon dioxide. Combining the two statements above, Water is (25 * 1078 = 27,175) to (100 * 1078 = 108,700) times more responsible for greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide.

PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the opening of a new green house and well at the office of the the Director of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, Feb. 24. Parwan Governor, Abdul Basir Salangi, attended the ceremony alongside members of the Kentucky Agribusiness Development Team. The greenhouse and well are just two additions in a series of projects aimed at moving local Afghan farmers out of mere sustenance farming through teaching modern techniques and providing resources. The DAIL office in Parwan valley serves as a training ground for local agriculture officials. They act in...

Virginia joined a growing list of opponents to the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to regulate greenhouse gases. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II petitioned a federal court Tuesday to reconsider EPA's decision that greenhouse gases, which are linked to global warming, are a public health threat. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Texas filed similar suits. Cuccinelli will argue, among other things, that EPA failed to consider how regulations will affect the state's economy, particularly in the coal-mining towns of southwest Virginia, spokesman Daniel Dodds said. "We're asking them to reconvene because it did not take in to account the economic...

Having a chemical plant sited next door to your plantation isn't what the average farmer might want for his crop. Jan van Duijn, however, walks proudly through his greenhouse, a vast glass and metal structure spread out over five hectares (12.3 acres) where millions of aubergines are doing very nicely thank you. He's happy because thanks to a deal with a supplier, he's getting hot water piped in from the factory, which produces ammonia, to maintain the temperature at a constant 68 degrees F (20C). The chemical site, five kilometres (three miles away), also supplies carbon dioxide which helps his...

The EPA is about to announce that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, something that has in many ways been inevitable since the boneheaded SCOTUS ruling in Mass. vs EPA (which essentially found that the Clean Air Act was always intended to be Kyoto-on-steroids.) With thanks to my colleague Will Yeatman, here's a brief summary of what this means, and why you should be appalled. Under the Clean Air Act, an “endangerment” finding means that the EPA will have to grant a waiver to those states (such as California) that want to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles. The EPA...

For 20 years, as this crowded planet grew warmer, nations have gathered annually to try to do something about it. History now brings them to this chilly northern capital, and to a crossroads. The world looks to Copenhagen "to witness what I believe will be an historic turning point in the fight against climate change," says Yvo de Boer, United Nations organizer of the two weeks of talks opening Monday. It may witness, instead, history put on hold. The change in U.S. administrations a year ago had aroused hopes the long-running climate talks might finally produce an all-encompassing package in...

ITHACA, NY-“Why is it just so difficult to make the search for truth the highest journalistic value?” Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times Reporter Linda Greenhouse asked a packed Lewis Auditorium yesterday. Greenhouse relied on her wisdom and experience as she spoke about the state of today’s news media, questioning the very rubric by which today’s journalists operate. Adolph S. Ochs, the founder of today’s modern New York Times, laid out his goal for the creation of a newspaper that would “give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect or interests involved."Veteran mind: Linda Greenhouse, Pulitzer...

Science and skeptical bloggers A small article in last week’s Science magazine frets that skeptical bloggers are teasing climate scientists over their failed predictions. Bloggers are pointing out that actual temperatures have not been friendly to climatologists, and have failed to rise as predicted. Some climate scientists respond by effectively saying: have no fear, warming is on its way—and this time we mean it! Climate forecast failures? Since 1999, most climate model predictions have been too high by a factor of about 3. Plus, actual temperatures have been decreasing, or at least not increasing. Yet the belief in the accuracy...

UK - Householders could be fined £1,000 if they throw food scraps and potato peelings into the dustbin under a Government 'zero waste' policy. They will be forced to sift through their rubbish for anything that can be recycled, reused, rotted or burnt for electricity. The crackdown will create so much recyclable material that homes could be given five wheelie bins and waste boxes to cope. The controversial zero waste policy - part of the Government's drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions - will be unveiled tomorrow by Environment Minister Hilary Benn. The plans are due to be outlined at...

Arctic temperatures are now higher than at any time in the last 2,000 years, research reveals. Changes to the Earth's orbit drove centuries of cooling, but temperatures rose fast in the last 100 years as human greenhouse gas emissions rose. Scientists took evidence from ice cores, tree rings and lake sediments. Writing in the journal Science, they say this confirms that the Arctic is very sensitive both to changes in solar heating and to greenhouse warming. The 23 sites sampled were good enough to provide a decade-by-decade picture of temperatures across the region. The result is a "hockey stick"-like curve...

The purpose of cap and trade (C&T) legislation is to reduce Americans’ consumption of fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—and to speed up the transition to alternate forms of energy, such as wind and solar power. The “cap” part would be a legislated limit to the quantity of carbon dioxide that Americans would be permitted to put into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. The government would then issue permits that it would sell or give (details are being worked out) to businesses who could then either emit CO2 up to the amount stipulated in their permit, or,...

Obama campaigned on it and even managed to talk about it a full week into office, issuing an executive order on January 23, 2009, promising to create "an unprecedented level of openness in Government" and "establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration." As usual with the words that float so effortlessly from politicians, they were just words. Undoubtedly, they will be paraded about from time to time like a USSR military review--whenever it's convenient to do so. One very important place where transparency is being hidden behind closed doors involves the very inconvenient science behind charging the EPA...

COVENTRY, Vt. – Vermont dairy farmers Tim Maikshilo and Kristen Dellert, mindful of shrinking their carbon footprint, have changed their cows' diet to reduce the amount of gas the animals burp — dairy cows' contribution to global warming. Coventry Valley Farm is one of 15 Vermont farms working with Stonyfield Farm Inc., whose yogurt is made with their organic milk, to reduce the cows' intestinal methane by feeding them flaxseed, alfalfa, and grasses high in Omega 3 fatty acids. The gas cows belch is the dairy industry's biggest greenhouse gas contributor, research shows, most of it emitted from the front...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, in the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address, called the House climate bill "a classic example of unwise government." The address culminated a week of coordinated Republican attacks on the Democratic proposal which would require the first nationwide reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

U.S. Bill Moves a Step Closer, but a Global Deal on Climate Change Presents a Bigger Challenge for Obama Administration WASHINGTON -- A landmark proposal to curb U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions cleared a key congressional panel, bolstering prospects that the government will put a price on carbon for the first time and portending a major shift in how the U.S. uses energy. At the same time, China's government asserted a new, tougher stance in the face of pressure to cut its emissions, underscoring the challenge that the Obama administration will face in trying to forge a global deal to combat climate...

Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets. ...When the Kyoto Protocol was signed, an internal memo was sent within Enron that stated, "If implemented, [the Kyoto Protocol] will do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory business."

House Democrats said last night that they would scale back some of the most aggressive provisions of a bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions, a compromise designed to win the votes of fellow Democrats whose states rely on coal or heavy industry. Such a deal would give a crucial boost to a measure that is a key priority for both President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill. It had run aground amid concerns that it would cost too much, or weigh too heavily on states in the Midwest and West... The basic structure of the bill remains unchanged: It calls...

As those following the insanity in the Oregon Legislature know, House Bill 2186 A Engrossed is scheduled for a floor debate and vote today. According to the House Clerks Office, and a glance at the floor schedule reveal, it is unlikely that the bill will be heard today. There are a total of 27 House Bills that were carried over from May 6th to today, and those bills will be considered first. The Clerk's office reports that the House Bill Schedule will be cleared tomorrow, meaning that they will hear and vote upon every bill to clear this legislative schedule...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday declared that greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide endanger human health and welfare, clearing the way for possible U.S. regulation. The EPA said it found that "greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations" and human activities spur global warming. "These high atmospheric levels are the unambiguous result of human emissions, and are very likely the cause of the observed increase in average temperatures and other climatic changes," the agency said in its finding, released online at epa.gov. Regulation is not automatically...

Link only - 3rd UPDATE: EPA Cleared To Declare Greenhouse Gases A Danger

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany's environment minister warned on Saturday that if Washington does not go beyond its current greenhouse gas cutting commitments, agreement on a new climate pact this year will prove difficult. So far, the Obama administration has agreed to cut heat-trapping greenhouse gasses only to 1990 levels, far short of European Union commitments. "If the United States isn't ready to go further than that, things are going to be very difficult in Copenhagen," minister Sigmar Gabriel told AFP, referring to a key summit to be held in December which will look to draft a new version of the...

EPA proposes greenhouse gas registry – A first step for climate policy On March 10 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will propose a new rule to require greenhouse gas emissions reporting from thousands of businesses nationwide – a prerequisite for any effective climate change program. A greenhouse gas registry is a database for collecting, verifying, and tracking emissions from specific industrial sources. Late in 2007 Congress ordered the Bush EPA to create just such a greenhouse gas emissions reporting rule. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration missed its first deadline for publishing a draft of the rule and...

Banking problems and “toxic assets” are major contributors to the ongoing decline in the stock market, but it is quite likely that investors took them into account last year. The 800 pound gorilla in the living room that nobody seems to want to talk about consists of Barack Obama’s agenda (per his State of the Union Address) to impose taxes on all fossil fuels, or require users of fossil fuels to buy carbon offset credits from the modern counterparts of medieval indulgence peddlers. As long as this agenda continues to menace the United States, investors are rightly reluctant to invest...

President Barack Obama's first budget includes $15 billion a year for renewable energy programs and an ambitious plan to raise $646 billion from a carbon reduction proposal. "Because our future depends on our ability to break free from oil that's controlled by foreign dictators, we need to make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy," Mr. Obama said Thursday morning. "That's why we'll be working with Congress on legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy." The plan uses money from a cap-and-trade program — which would allow companies to...

President Obama will pledge Tuesday night that the nation "will rebuild, we will recover," as he delivers an address to a joint session of Congress and with a nervous nation watching at home. "While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," Mr. Obama will say, according to excerpts of his remarks. In lofty language, Mr. Obama is expected to promise a new path forward...

Barack Hussein Obama will propose a massive business tax on greenhouse gases in his FY 2010 federal budget to be presented this week.The massive tax increase and power grab was buried at the end on article on Obama's forthcoming budget proposal in The New York Times:On energy policy, Mr. Obama’s budget will show new revenues by 2012 from his proposal to require companies to buy permits from the government for greenhouse gas emissions above a certain cap. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the permits would raise up to $300 billion a year by 2020. Since companies would pass their...

The claim that carbon dioxide (CO2) can increase air temperatures by "trapping" infrared radiation (IR) ignores the fact that in 1909 physicist R.W. Wood disproved the popular 19th Century thesis that greenhouses stayed warm by trapping IR. Unfortunately, many people who claim to be scientists are unaware of Wood's experiment which was originally published in the Philosophical magazine , 1909, vol 17, p319-320. Wood was an expert on IR. His accomplishments included inventing both IR and UV (ultraviolet) photography. Wood constructed two identical small greenhouses. The description implies the type of structure a gardener would refer to as a "coldframe"...

Former Vice President Al Gore brought a stark message to the Senate on Wednesday: A new climate change treaty is critical to continuing human life on Earth. The Nobel Peace Prize winner urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to push for a U.S.-brokered treaty in December in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the United Nations will host a climate change conference. Only the United States can lead such an effort, he said. “This is the one challenge that could completely end human civilization, and it is rushing at us with such speed and force,” said Gore, who won an Oscar for the...